HEREDITARY DISEASE OF FICUS TSIELA. 83 



representations of the trunks of Ficus Bengalensis, Liun. (Wad), 

 F. religiom, Linn. (Pipal), F. Mela, Eoxb. (Pipri), and Pangamia 

 glabra, Vent. (Karunj). 



Trunk of the Fig Trees. — Now I would call your attention to the 

 comformation of the trunk of the fig-trees in general. This is marked 

 by several more or less deep furrows, which, however, very seldom 

 extend beyond the large primary branches. They are sometimes so 

 deep as to make it appear that two or three trees during their growth 

 are united together. This appearance is still more delusive when 

 the ridges, which form the walls of the furrows, continue down to the 

 roots. Occasionally the trunk of a tree is divided by a large furrow 

 into two parts, which are held together by a sort of diaphragm or 

 flat central portion. I have seen a tree of this kind at the foot of 

 the Katraj Ghat, on the left side of the road leading to it, and another 

 in the city of Poona. The trunks of all the young trees, cultivated 

 or grown from seedlings, are round. It is only after years that 

 they show a tendency to become irregular. This conformation of 

 the trunk is common to all fig-trees, though more marked in some 

 than in others; thus in the Pqml (Ficus religiosa, Linn.) the trunk 

 is much disfigured by ridges and furrows being divided and sub- 

 divided in all directions, and the latter (furrows) being deep 

 here and shallow there, or the former becoming more or less 

 prominent and sharper in one place than in another. Eoxburgh in 

 his Flora Indiea notices this condition thus : " trunk (of Pijml) erect, 

 in small trees round, when large and old, it becomes full of irregu- 

 larities, i. e., lai-ge perpendicular ridges and hollows as if many trunks 

 were united." 



The same botanist describing "Wad {Ficus Bengalensis, Linn.) says : 

 ** Trunk when young is distinct and single, at all times its form, 

 thickness, and height very variable, still more so than Ficus religiosa, 

 Linn., because generally reared from branches procured naked and 

 stuck in the ground." It is well known that Wad {Ficus Bengalensis) 

 is enormously extended by the aerial roots descending and fixing 

 themselves on the ground and gradually increasing in size, and 

 becoming similar to the parent trunk. I have seen on one tree in 

 Poona these aerial roots gliding over the trunk, increasing its 

 thickness and adding a ridge or ridges to the already existing ones. 



